I am interested in both contemporary political theory and the history of political thought. I have published mainly on nineteenth-century political thought, including work on Hegel and (left) Hegelianism, Marx, utopianism, and anarchism. Those publications include a study of Marx's political thought entitled The Young Karl Marx. German Philosophy, Modern Politics, and Human Flourishing, published by Cambridge University Press. Together with Marc Stears, I have also edited a collection of essays about methods in political theory. Political Theory: Methods and Approaches is published by Oxford University Press and contains essays by a number of Oxford political theorists, and other colleagues, including Daniel McDermott; David Miller; Adam Swift; Stuart White; Lois McNay; Mark Philp; Sudhir Hazareesingh; Karma Nabulsi; Elizabeth Frazer; and Michael Freeden.

One of my current research projects is concerned with the relation between socialism and utopia. I am sceptical about aspects of the socialist rejection of utopianism, especially as found in the Marxist tradition, and interested in reassessing the treatment of questions of socialist design in the writings of so-called 'utopian socialists'.

I teach the political theory part of the first year Introduction to Politics course; the core paper Theory of Politics; and the three further theory papers History of Political Thought: Plato to Rousseau; History of Political Thought: Bentham to Weber; and Marx and Marxism.

My graduate commitments include teaching the optional paper 'Political Theories of Hegel and Marx', and the research methods course 'Problems of Method in the History of Political Thought'.